SIR — As a resident of Cannington, I need to portray some disappointment regarding the outcome of the planning committee meeting last Thursday when EDF were given approval by West Somerset Council to destroy habitat and cause chaos for at least 15 months.

Sadly, none of the West Somerset councillors live in Cannington or (with the odd exception) demonstrated they had much interest or compassion for us up here. Otherwise the outcome may have been more favourable to us.

Had this proposal been positioned in such a way that the traffic would go through Williton, I'm sure things would have been different.

It has been well documented what this will mean to the Bridgwater and Cannington surrounding area regarding traffic etc. Safety, pollution, noise and ecology will also be of concern.

We looked upon this planning application with a possible refusal as a potential lifeline. We in Cannington also put up a strong case, but obviously not strong enough to allow common sense to prevail.

This application could have easily been put in abeyance by the district council and integrated with the whole application to the IPC in the autumn.

But it was deemed appropriate to force things through despite the fact the permission for the build of the power station has not even been authorised.

I find it bizarre that there seems to be so much urgency to undertake this preliminary work yet EDF has not even applied for planning permission for the Cannington western by-pass.

Is that because they are looking at the Bridgwater by-pass after all? Very unlikely as cynically I suspect EDF has no intention of even building a by-pass around our village at all.

Furthermore, we have had the spin from all concerned regards the so-called urgency and the lights will go out.

That may well be the case, but can anyone explain why, in order to apply such a so-alled "quick-fix", there is a need to mess about with untried technology which will take longer to get operational, using a format that already has a reputation for delays (Flamanville and Olkiluoto are all seriously behind schedule and over budget) and why did they not fill the gap using existing "off the shelf" current proven methods?

All this beggars belief.

Alex Reed,

Cannington.